Media Evaluation

Question 1

Question 1 from 09houlbr

 

Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Our male actor, Bradley Hoult, represents a stereotypical cheating male, lying and betraying the trust of his doting fiancé. In the beginning scene, we use a variety of different camera angles, showing Bradleys arrival to the house, which emphasizes the anticipation of his fiancé and the realisation of what he’s done. Bradley remains calm as he fixes up his hair in the mirror, whilst in the background she waits – almost in a ghostly state – for him to enter. I felt that it was important to use a long, tension building first scene, to introduce the long period of time that Bradley had been completing these infidelities. It is clear that in our thriller, males are not represented well, despite the fact that it is clear Bradley’s character has a good job – by wearing a smart outfit to work – it could also be suggested that through Bradleys high status and wealth, with the luxury house they both live in also, lead to his power going to his head and feeling that his fiancé must be submissive and play the part of the obsessive lover, whilst he continues to lie to her every day.

 

Although males are not represented well, it is also arguable that females are depicted far worse. As the emotions the woman in our film feels, are far from what is considered the normal for a healthy relationship. She has consumed and based her life around this man, to the point where her happiness depends on it. We stereotypically had her cooking dinner and he out at work, to show that society’s conventions of how young adults should behave, does not always mean that they will be happy. I personally feel that if we’d have included our female character, Olivia, out with her friends or in the workplace it would take away her vulnerability. As if she is shown to have numerous friends to support her through his implied cheating stage, people may not feel as sorry for her. We did this to evoke emotion, and also show that he is the centre of her world, and all thoughts lead back to him, making it more heart-breaking for her when she feels that he has completely betrayed her. As she looks back on her events, it is seemingly told from a bitter perspective, which could show that as she’s gotten older or time has passed, her thoughts and feelings of the time have become more anger related than sad thoughts. The voiceover, from the woman’s perspective, doesn’t give the male a voice, which I feel goes against the normal, as many stories have leading male characters such as Harry Potter, Batman and Spiderman. The woman, Olivia Needham, narrates her thoughts and feelings on the whole experience of being in love, and being betrayed, however we have left it to interpretation whether or not Bradley did in fact cheat, or our main character, Olivia, was simply paranoid and in a mental state. As even though the camera focuses on a text that Bradley receives saying “Meet me at 7 at the usual place babe”, this does hint at the prospect of a romantic affair however it could nevertheless be a friendly text for meeting up for a meal. This could show that societies depictions of males over time, to cheat on woman over again, in our view can sometimes be highly exaggerated and the woman’s actions can often be overlooked, perhaps she did the same to him? It shows how the media can influence woman’s states of minds, convincing them that if the popular celebrity they like such as the beautiful, talented, Jennifer Anniston, has been cheated on by her partner, why can’t it happen to them? 

Age is also represented in our thriller piece to create effect. For example our actors, Bradley Hoult and Olivia Needham are both 16 however through our mise-en-scene we attempted to make them appear slightly older so the plot was more realistic. Our aim was to make them seem around 19/20, an age where many people are young and in love, and tend to be reckless and impulsive. I tried to make our actor, Olivia, appear older by giving her outfits that I deemed too old for a 16 year old. Considering most 16 year olds where leggings which make them appear that age, I steered clear and went for jeans, skirts and cardigans for our actress – more conservative outfits. I also applied makeup fairly heavily to my sister, using techniques such as contouring that many older celebrities such as Kim Kardashian use, to avoid looking baby faced. As well as this I lined her lips to make them look fuller, and more appealing and noticeable in the thriller. For our male actor, Bradley, we chose to put him in outfits like suits, and more casual t shirts for everyday life, as he is fairly tall there was not much else needed to make him appear older. By making our actors appear 19/20 we hoped to successfully represent this age range as being reckless, and to rush into things quickly. With having their big house, this shows the success they have received early on in their lifetime, and also could suggest ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ which is definitely a message we were trying to convey. Although on the outside things appear to be perfect, things may be quickly falling apart which is something that can happen commonly in young relationships.  

Regional identity is also shown in our thriller, as it is clear the two characters are from a well off background, living in a country house. We were able to do this by simply only filming in Brandon’s house and garden – as opposed to travelling around, as we wanted to capture the country feeling that Brandon’s house had and also we wanted this so it showed how secluded our characters are from society. This represents their relationship, how they have been secluded from their friends due to their obsession with each other.  The fact that we aimed for the characters to appear to have a country lifestyle, with the women staying at home and doing domestic things such as cooking, it shows how different they are to everyday society. For example if we had chosen to set the regional identity to a city, such as London, this would mean that our whole thriller would have to be adapted. Through things such as the fact that the house is so big and spacious, the women would most likely be out working as well as our male character, and this could mean that the plot would not be able to develop as she may not have realised he was home late if she, too, came home at that time.

 

Question 3

Q3 from 09houlbr

Question 4




































Question 5



Question 6













Tripods - For almost all of our shots, except the shots of the protagonist killing her lover - we used a Tripod. We felt that by using a tripod this was essential to get the shots that we wanted and for them to look steady and professional. There was never discussion between our group to not use a tripod, as we both felt that it was needed to get the high quality shots that we wanted, so our film looked as good as possible. I have learned a lot about tripods from creating our thriller product as we have had to adjust them to various
different heights to get the type of shots we wanted - for example we had to construct them in the shot of the wheel moving forwards, which was from a low angle. We then had to make them tilt upwards to capture the shot of our two characters walking down the stairs, so it gave the perspective they were feeling superior in their love. Another way we constructed the tripod was to get the perspective of the two characters sat down when he proposes to her.
DSLR's - The DSLR was a piece of equipment I was very familiar with, having had one purchased for me 3 years previously, that I used to capture photo's of my holidays and travels to Australia. By having this bought for me it made me realise my passion for photography and filming with cameras. The camera I had bought for me was the Fujifilm Finepix, and it helped me learn a lot of things such as how to work the Aperture, how to film in poor lighting and how to reduce the shutter speed. This knowledge was the reason that when filming, I really wanted to use a DSLR to capture the shots. I had seen the quality that the handheld camcorders produced - when filming our preliminary task - and I knew that it did not look professional and I wanted ours to look as good as it possibly could. By using the DSLR's we even borrowed a spare lens from school so that we were able to experiment more with focusing on subjects. By focusing on the characters more and blurring out the background, such as in the shot where Bradley is getting out of the car - where he is in full focus - and in the blurred background we subtly chose to have our other character, Olivia, in the background looking at him - to emphasize her paranoid state.
Soundtrack - For our movie soundtrack was an ongoing issue, which unfortunately we left until quite late in the editing process. My initial desire was to use the song 'Once Upon A Dream' by Lana Del Ray as it sounded eery and mysterious, I felt it would really fit in with the prospect of our thriller. Unfortunately, due to copyright issues we were not allowed to use this song, therefore I considered asking someone I was close was to cover it, or cover a song similar- as the notes were very low - such as Rihanna's Love the way you lie, as this also fits in quite well with the tone of our thriller. Unfortunately due to scheduling conflicts she was unable to record for us, and therefore we went on a copyright free website and found a very creepy sound that was quite synth based, which we used as background music to our thriller. I have learned from this experience that soundtrack is a crucial aspect to the movie making process and must be considered far in advance of editing the final project.
Voice Over - We chose to include a voiceover, over our backing sound, to tell the story of the relationship. I wrote the script for our actress, and we recorded it on the microphone which made the quality very high. I was very happy with how the voiceover turned out, and with out it the questioning at the end "Is this what we've become?" hints to the audience that she either wants to kill him or has done, the voiceover gives the film much more meaning - and is quite a like other film openings, such as Mean Girls, to give a narrative of what is happening at that particular time.
Titling - At the beginning of the year, I experimented with a titling programme, Premier Pro After Effects. I began to follow a tutorial on how to create a bat title, and when we began thinking about thriller projects I came back to the titling and unfortunately found it incredibly difficult and time consuming therefore I was unable to continue with it which saddened me and is something I will improve next time. The title sequence we used was similar to a time lapse which is one of the reasons I chose to use it, as it is of the clouds and says Black Widow which is a title I am very happy with.

Question 7
 

'Black Widow' - Our Final Product

Here is mine and Brandon's finished Media product entitled 'Black Widow' it was a really fun and I am very proud of the finished product. We have received a lot of positive feedback and the experience of filming a thriller opening was a time I learnt a lot about the process of film-making.

Editing the movie's audio

 

After over a week of editing I have recently uploaded the audio footage and found that my actors voice was in too close proximity to the microphone at time of recording so there are occasionally load noises. After googling this I found that I needed to use the bass effect on Premier Pro and decrease the sound, once I had done this I tested out if the noise was still detectable and it appeared to have disappeared. I am very happy with this discovery and feel that Premier Pro is teaching my a lot of valuable lessons for next years course.

 

   

Feedback from others

After showing my classmate,Tom, my video in form he had some comments to make for us to improve our thriller. Tom said that he really enjoyed the range of shots and how they conveyed emotions. He also however pointed out that the knife only had blood on one side of it, making it look unrealistic. This is something I will aim to fix in editing. I feel that others feedback is necessary, particularly from the target audience, as he can help us understand what works well and what doesn't.

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Filming Day

Today we filmed shots for our thriller, after having a discussion with our former group, we have decided to split into 2 groups, me and Brandon being in one group. We felt this decision was best as 4 in a group means people lack creative control,however everyone is supportive of each other's decision. We decided to keep the existing storyline as we had all decided on this previously and filmed at Brandon's house, using our family members as actors. We spent a whole day filming for this project and are really happy with the result. We will edit our thriller tomorrow in premier pro. See shots of our filming day below.

Practising with Titles

Today I came across a project I started at the beginning of the media course regarding titling. I began to finish editing with it and my group member Brandon also helped me with this. We worked together and helped, following the steps on the tutorial and were able to create a creepy looking title, with bats flying through it to represent the mystery of the 'Black Widow' so we are calling our thriller. I am very proud of what we managed to achieve, and although it isn't yet finished I have inserted a clip of what we managed to create so far
below. We will most likely be using this in our thriller film, as it looks very professional and represents our thrillers mystery well.
 

Testing out Equipment

Today we practised using the Boom Microphones and Poles to see the sound quality and how effectively we would be able to use them in our thriller. We definitely know that we want to use them when making our thriller film as they capture sound effectively, and you can get a more precise cut of the sound, as opposed to the DSLR camera's sound, which we also tested out. I feel it is important to have a strong idea of how to use equipment before we film so we are as prepared as we can be in the run up to the filming days.

Analysis of Blank Space Music Video - Gender and Power roles.

The music video Blank Space, by Taylor swift has formed an inspiration for our thriller film. As we feel the prospect of a video, a love story which ends with a psychotic women killing a lover. As this links in so closely with what our idea is for our thriller. I have chosen to analyse it, picking out crucial shots that we may possibly use in our thriller.



The reason I have chosen to analyse this music video, is because it closely links in with the topic of our thriller, deception and unfaithfulness. The video uses a clever range of shots, to reveal the truth of the plot.

0.05 seconds
There is an establishing shot of the castle, from an arguably low perspective to make it appear bigger and more daunting. We see the car, which seems tiny in comparison, possibly representing the power of the two protagonists, the man in the car and the woman in the castle, immediately portraying woman as superior from the start, and in a fairly positive way thus far.
0.15 seconds

-There is following this, a long shot of the main woman character at the top of a grand staircase. As she is stood at the top of the staircase, and the cutaway following reveals the man is at the bottom knocking on the door. It shows she is in full control of the relationship from the very beginning, as the position of her on the stairs shows her high status and perhaps wealth, therefore more power within her decisions. As the man is behind the door, it shows he has to wait for her to open the door to be let in, this potentially foreshadows their relationship and that - she is in control, as she has to open up the door for him into their new relationship, whilst he is very much stood waiting for her command.
0.27 seconds

The shot of the man drinking the alcohol at the opposite end of the table, then the woman at the following end, in a new outfit. This is effective in showing the passage of time, as her outfit has clearly changed, and could show the change in their relationship - from strangers to love interests. As they are at opposite ends of the table in the shot this could mean that they have different interests, and their relationship is not intimate as they are clearly far apart from each other, dooming the relationship from the start.
0.42 seconds

The woman's direct look at the camera in this shot, suggests to the audience that she feels she can trust them, as the direct eye contact suggests intimacy. This could mean that she is letting the audience on perhaps very much accurate memories. Therefore foreshadowing the level of trust between the woman and the audience, so we potentially trust her recollection of events better.
0.49 seconds

The long shot used of the woman and man is an interesting one as it reveals a lot about their relationship. The man is holding two Rottweiler dogs, often associated with being strong and potentially dangerous dogs. As the man is holding the two dogs, this could represent the mans dangerous character, revealed later on in the video. In the following shot the woman stares into the mans eyes whilst he walks on, this could show his lack of interest in her, and the black outfits they both wear could arguably connotate mystery and evil of the two characters.
1.12 seconds

The slow motion capture used shows the girl running, which is effective as it could symbolize time moving slowly throughout the relationship. As she is running away from the man playfully it could show they have had a lot of fun times, as the slow motion makes it feel longer than it is. Alternatively, the shot of her running away could possibly represent the fact that she wanted to get out of the relationship but slowly as opposed to quickly - maybe she knew it wouldn't last from the get go?

2.11 seconds

The woman is closely grabbing the mans face in an angry demeanour and we can immediately infer, from the previous few seconds, that they are in an argument. This scene is captured with a shaky turn from the camera, from the camera being placed nearer the left side of them, moving further right. As the camera deliberately moves shakily, this could show the unstableness in their relationship at that moment in time.

Risk Assessment Form

We had to complete a risk assessment form, so that we could identify the risks that could occur when shooting our film. It is beneficial to us to know what potential risks there could be.

Schedule

This is our schedule for planning out filming hours in January 2015. We have tried to find and book out equipment for days that we are all free to be able to help out capturing shots and organising the film. The day's highlighted in yellow on the sheet are the days we have booked out the equipment to film our thriller opening.

 

Equipment



A Camera Lens
A separate camera lens for recording various different shots, this will give us more of a variety of shots, and more of a chance to experiment with the type of shots that we could potentially capture.

A Camera

A camera, although this seems obvious, we will need a camera that is able to capture high quality shots, such as a HDR camera. This is so we can try out different effects, and change some of the features of the camera such as the aperture, exposure and various things.
 

 A Microphone

 We will need this to closely capture all the sound that is in the film. As we are using a microphone the sound will be clearer and more precise, so we can use this to edit the film.

 

A Boom Mic Pole
We need a pole to hold our microphone on to make sure we can get the sound without the microphone being in the shot, this way we can hold it above the characters to still get clear dialogue.

A Tripod

To hold our camera steady when filming, we will aim to use this most of the time so the shots that we do take are focused and still. Unless we were to pan, then we would use features available on the tripod to do this.
 

An SD Card.

The SD Card is used to capture all of the shots, without one we couldn't film so this is possibly the most important piece of equipment to remember and we must keep it safe.

Storyboard

Here is our storyboard for our thriller, it is a basis for all our ideas and what we will refer to when we film our shots. Our team member Ellie, drew out the storyboard, me and Brandon had a discussion over the phone on the kind of shots we wanted to capture, and our other team member Georgina helped decide on these as well. We all agreed on the type of shots and Ellie drew them up into this storyboard. I am very happy with it to use as a basis for our ideas. 

 

Q&A on Our One Page Pitch

Me, Ellie,Georgina and Brandon, were asked questions on our one page pitch which we began to explain in detail to our Media teacher, Mr Welch. I edited the video using Windows Movie Maker so I could get used to the software, and practice editing skills.

Our One Page Pitch

Age rating:
Our age rating is a 12. I looked at the BBFC regulations and have selected an age rating that I think will be appropriate to audiences. A rating of 12 seems suitable as our thriller will glaze over the murder scene so there will not be any graphic violence displayed. There will not be any scenes involving drugs or sex. However the theme will be mature and suitable for ages 12 and over.

Target audience:

Our target audience will be between ages 12-25. We are targeting our film at young adults as we think that is a good age to target our thoughts about the issues raised in the media text. Our media text will be used as a form of escapism. It will be used for people to escape from reality and everyday life. The media text is used to provoke an emotion from the audience or can be used as a way of expressing ideas about the topic of the film with friends, family or acquaintances. We do not want audiences to be passive when watching our thriller, we want people to question our ideas and what happens in the film, as it will raise issues regarding gender empowerment and sexism.

Statement of intent:

For our story, our theme is envy and jealousy, and how it can drive people mad. We have chosen to tell the story that we have to portray how delusional love can make people, and the drastic ending that one woman had to take when her love for a man was disrupted. For us as a group, we feel passionately about this subject, as although we haven’t personally experienced it, we know how being unfaithful can shatter someone’s heart. The feeling is unimaginable to comprehend, as the love of our main characters life betrayed her trust, as well as using the other woman. The audience, we feel, will care about this subject, as it is very commonly portrayed in the media and women’s feelings and thoughts are never shown.  In the modern day, we feel like the story of a man having an affair leaving a woman heartbroken and deluded, is appropriate to tell. Our aim is to make men think about their actions, as not many women will just forgive and forget. Our main woman character is strong, and although a murderer, her motive was that she either ended his life or hers, because she couldn’t take the news of his affair. We hope that the audience will feel the need for the story to be told, as it is an important aspect in relationships – and the gluttony of men or woman thinking they can have two loves, is sadly mistaken.  We have chosen to make our thriller a film opening, as opposed to a TV drama, as with TV drama characters can develop over time, whereas our characters we want their personalities to be clear throughout.

Plot

For our plot we have chosen to have many characters stood around a coffin, either viewing it in the morgue or crying, or around a grave. We want the characters to show emotion, to know that the loss has made a massive impact, and 2 women we want to stand out immediately, perhaps by cutaways from one to the other. But one noticeably crying, the other one noticeably looking angry ( the girlfriend and the one he is later revealed to have had an affair with ). For the second scene we want a clear flashback, where the main character BOB and his girlfriend MARY are shown in a montage of clips doing things together such as going on dates – the story of how they fell in love. After this we want a clear shot of suspicions, with MARY lurking around where BOB is, later to be looking out of a window and seeing BOB with the girl he’s having an affair with ( JESSICA ). After BOB returns from his affair that night, we see MARY look smiley and happy, however we (THE AUDIENCE) see she has a knife behind her back. We have shown to include the audience in dramatic irony, that she wants to kill him, as then they can infer for themselves what will happen, without actually being shown it.

Tag-Line;

The female of the species is much deadlier than the male

The what if premise:

What if the love of your life, the one you held closest to your heart, the one who you would do anything for, cross mountains and oceans for, betrayed you? What if the man, who promised to love you and to cherish you, no matter what, lied to you?  What if because of his poisonous and vile lies, everything you worked for and everything you’d treasured had come crumbling down?  What would you do? Could you forgive him? Or would you take your revenge?

Six Stages of Media Production.

In the media industry, there are various stages in creating a film and, in order to apply these stages and gain more of an insight to how to include these stages in our thriller, I decided to research them.

Negotiating a deal

The film industry is made up of big studios, where ideas must be pitched to a studio. After a film has been pitched successfully, the studio's producer hires actors, directors and a crew to work on the film. An example of some of the major film industries are: Warner Brothers, Disney, Sony Pictures, Paramount, Universal and 20th Century Fox.

In order for a film to be successful, it is suggested that it needs to be:

• A sequel to a box office hit
• A remake of a European box office hit
• An adaptation of a best selling hit
• An original idea from a successful director

For our thriller, we haven't specifically followed these suggestions, however we have taken inspiration from successful films and music videos, for example Taylor Swifts Blank Space music video, Sam Smiths Not The Only One music video and the Gone Girl film. I feel it will be effective as we have taken inspiration from many successful videos and adapted them to fit our story-line.

Pre-Production

As soon as a deal has been negotiated, the production team has a lot of preparation to do before shooting begins. Actors must be cast in roles, locations decided, costumes made, dialogue coaches hired, and hotel rooms booked for locations. This process will take a long time, and finally after everything is decided - the official starting date is decided and announced to the press.

For the pre production of our thriller, it is our Research and Planning stage. This involves my groups storyboard, ideas on plots, camera angle ideas and much more planning drafts. We need to ensure that everything is planned out, just like many major movie companies. However we do not have to worry about the large scale that movie companies do, as its a thriller opening, for school and everyone is on the same level.

Production

The actual production stage in films is arguably the hardest, as everything must be precise and correct, or it could cost a fortune to re-shoot scenes. It is often called the 'Principal photography' stage, an is often the shortest of them all. Films usually finish this part in about 50 days of shooting.

For our film, we realise the importance of this stage and therefore recognize that research and planning is the most important stage with regards to helping filming run smoothly. This is why I have decided to research the film industry, and the various different stages to gain more of an insight into how the process works. We obviously - with only filming a 2 minute introduction - will not be filming for 50 days, as we only have certain shots we need to get.

Post Production

Post production is the longest stage in the process. During this stage the film is edited, and the story put together. The director and editor may either be very close during this time, or distant - for example Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker work together for many months to completely finish a film. Sound is edited or added in, and visual effects are also edited into the piece.

For our film, post production will include our editing stage - on Premier Pro - and many other software, and this is where we can experiment with certain effects or gradients and decide what works best to create effect. For us, I personally think our Editor and the rest of our group will be working together, so everyone has an input - and we will share responsibility for editing certain aspects. This I think will be effective as everyone knows what is going on.


Distribution and Marketing

Every part of the process is crucial to making the film a success. Marketing is the key to power in the media industries. Distributors tens to promote and market films in particular areas and negotiate release patterns with exhibitors. In the US the 'major studios' through their own distribution companies or in partnership, took over 80% of the North American market.

For our film, we recognize that marketing towards a target audience is beneficial, as they are the main people that will view a film, therefore we have done a lot of research into our audience and even interviewed members of our audience - young adults - to see what they think of our ideas.

Exhibition

In the US the major studios were barred from ownership of large cinema chains however overseas there was no such restrictions and places such as Warner Brothers have built multiplexes in cinema markets. Ownership or control of stage productions is known as vertical interrogation and had advantages for the majors in ensuring that they will have a cinema available to take a film when its ready for release.

It is important that I understand what the process is when films are created, so by looking into the process of exhibition and what happens when films come to cinemas, it helps me further my knowledge of the media industry.

Representation in Media: Disability

In my media theory class, we have been looking at representations of different aspects of society and the world, such as how gender, class, sexuality and disability is represented in the media. For our media thriller, I think it is relevant to look closely at disability and different ways it is represented in the media, to make informed decisions on whether we want to represent it within our thriller. Here is some research that I have found out:

I visited various websites and read their articles on disability, one website informed me of the first televised plots featuring actors with a disability, and what these plots entailed. Within the British media there has been many shows such as Work at St. Dunstan's (1916) which was a TV programme giving viewers an exclusive look into a hostel for World War I soldiers who were blinded. This was one of the first programmes where disability was looked at in depth. Another programme showing disability was Fox Farm (1922) a silent feature that showed in depth the love between a blind farmer and a girl. This shows that the audience were aware of the issues with blindness and the hardships people with that disability faced from very early on in British media. Another documentary aired on British television highlighting disability was St Christopher (1967) which gave audiences an insight into Barney Platts-Mills' organisation that cared for children with many different disabilities around the UK. The programme A is for Autism (1992) gave audiences a strong perception and view into the lives of autistic individuals, highlighting the issue and encouraging viewers to recognize the disorder. A BAFTA award winning documentary called The Boy whose skin fell off (2004) showed the last few months of a Northumberland man that was born with a disabling skin condition, this showed the hardships he faced, and sparked a lot of interest and acclaim due to the award, for how the documentary showed his story.

Another article I looked at spoke of the Ricky Gervais sketch on popular TV show The Office encouraging employers to hire more disabled people, in a comical yet also serious way. Ricky - acting as a manager - is asked "would you hire a disabled person?" and immediately replies with "yes" something that most organisations answer when asked the question. However, quickly after Ricky begins to list the types of disabled people he couldn't hire, as they wouldn't be right for the job "Not dwarves. They can't reach stuff" and "Not blind. Dogs no good to you in here". Obviously poking fun at the pathetic discrimination of many companies who barely hire disabled people, it raised many eyebrows and praise, as Ricky spoke out for a wide group of people whose voices have clearly not been heard by employers. Nicky Clarke, a mum of two disabled children writes 'Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant produce projects which tackle our culture of discrimination and ignorance about difference. Their projects are imbued with a light touch and a sense of humour.' This shows that many people feel that a stand needs to be taken for those with disabilities, as they are cruelly dismissed from jobs that they are capable off, simply from the harsh discrimination which society seems to have.




When I questioned myself to think of disabled actors, one particular name stuck to mind; Warwick Davis. As he was included in Ricky Gervais' series An Idiot Abroad this further shows Ricky's passion to not underestimate or discriminate against people with disabilities. Warwick is best known for his role as an Ewok in the Star Wars films, as well as having various main roles in the Harry Potter phenomenon. Warwick was also, coincidentally, interviewed by Nicky Clarke - who I aforementioned - and had many views on disability and the media. When asked if he considered himself to be disabled Warwick said;  'There is a lot of other for me complications and sort of other issues related to me being short than just being short, and sometimes those things are debilitating in the fact that walking any distance is painful and things like that so in that side of things I do but I see being short also as being, it has enabled me to do everything I have ever done'. This shows that as a famous actor, and as Warwick is known for being short, he recognizes people may see his height as a disability however for him personally, it has led him to bigger opportunities. He made a fictional TV series called 'Lifes Too Short' with Ricky Gervais that focused on his height and disability within the media. I watched the making of the series to gain more of an insight into what the show was trying to achieve, and it focused a lot on the hardships that the character Warwick Davis, faced on his journey to fame. For example, after getting his big break in a show with Helena Bonham Carter, she begins to discriminate against him saying "I cant have its face staring at me" this shows the hardships that many disabled people face in society, not being treated as equals simply for their disability. Ricky Gervais says off the show 'I think people have already made their minds up before they've seen it that this is a cruel comedy because there's a...little person involved, so it has to be cruel.' The show illuminates the issues about societies prejudice for dwarves with one woman asking to take a picture of Warwick, then saying 'its funny isn't it...a dwarf carrying a box' 

 

Sharing ideas and gathering feedback from our target audience.

For our thriller, we decided to question members off our target audience - young adults - to see what they thought about the ideas we had. I asked them questions in a casual way, to gather their honest opinion about our thriller ideas. As they also are in our media class, they were able to comment on some of the suggestions I gave and suggest how we could improve, or shots they thought we should use. This helped me gain an understanding off how best to market our thriller towards our target audience, as we received effective feedback on what they would like to see, possible outcomes etc.

Experimenting with Camera Shots.

In preparation for filming our preliminary piece, I took it upon myself to take home the schools Nikon D5100 camera, to practice getting the shots that I wanted. My main aim was to figure out how to make the subject of a photo/film the focus, whilst the background remains blurry. This is a shot that I have especially been wanting to use in my film, ever since viewing a video on YouTube of a students media piece ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwsUnPHRXEM ). When I viewed this video I realised how much focus the shots put on the people in the film, and during my thriller I particularly wanted to use this shot a lot.
Here are some of the shots that I captured, and I am very pleased them:

Targeting an Audience

Targeting an audience, is one of the key aspects to planning our thriller. We must establish a specific market, as this would enable us to make our film as effective as it can be. I looked at several different theories to help gage more of an understanding about how to target the correct audience.

In 1974 two theorists, Bulmer and Katz developed the theory that audiences watch media forms for many different reasons. These are:

• Diversion - to escape from everyday life
• Personal Relationships - to use media for emotional and other interaction.
• Personal Identity - to create their own identity from characters in media
• Entertainment - as a mean of relaxation and enjoyment.
• Surveillance - to gain information.

Another theory on audiences and how to best target them is the LifeMatrix tool, which defines audience categories around values and beliefs. These are categorized into:

• Tribe Wired - Free spirited, creative young singles.
• Fun - Aspirational, fun seeking young people.
• Dynamic Duos - Hard-driving, high-involvement couples.
• Priority Parents - Family values, active
• Home Soldiers - Family orientated, ambitious.
• Renaissance Women - Active, caring, influential mums.
• Rugged Traditionalists - Traditional male values.
• Struggling Singles - High aspirations, low status.
• Settled Elders - Older lifestyles.
• Free Birds - Vital, activists.

The two-step flow theory is a hypothesis introduced by Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson, Hazal Guadet. The two steps are:

1. Opinion Leaders get information from a media source.
2. Opinion Leaders then pass on information, along with their interpretation to other people.

Opinion Leaders - pay close attention to media, are influential and are similar to those they inspire.

By gaining this information, its helped me realise how the audience will react to the media thriller that i am in the midst of planning.

Key Director: Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese is renowned for his films and directing skills, producing a wide range of films from thrillers to action films. I have decided to look closely at some of his work and famous techniques in order to gain more of an insight into what sort of techniques we should include in our film.

Martin Scorsese is well known for his movies, some are thrillers but most primarily have themes of redemption, crime and gang conflict. Some of his films that are most notable are; Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and the crime film Goodfellas (1990). He has had 8 nominations for best director, making him the most nominated living director. This is why I have chose to research Martin Scorsese's techniques.

The film 'Goodfellas' which is a crime-thriller film, and within the film he uses many editing techniques to help convey emotion and tell the story of the plot. For example he uses a Freeze Frame in the opening scene when the main character exclaims 'As far as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangsta' which, as the frame is paused on the character is effective in many ways. First of all due to the fact the frame is frozen we can infer that the character who is narrating is reflecting on his time - and the fact that it is frozen after he shoots someone shows that he believes shooting is a 'gangsta' way to behave. This freeze frame is effective as it stops the dynamic of the scene, pausing the action and giving the audience a chance to take in the information on what has happened prior at 1.32. it is clear Scorsese wants to signpost  moments he wants the audiences attention to focus on.